OSU first-year medical students to receive white coats at ceremony

Students in the Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine Class of 2017 will receive their white coats at 3 p.m. Sunday.

Howard Barnett, president of OSU-Tulsa and OSU Center for Health Sciences, and Kayse Shrum, D.O., provost of OSU-CHS and dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine, will welcome students, family and friends to the 15th annual OSU White Coat Ceremony at the Tulsa Community College VanTrease Performing Arts Center for Education, 10300 E. 81st St.

The ceremony emphasizes the importance of the doctor-patient relationship and focuses on the true meaning of the art and science of medicine. Students will be cloaked with white coats provided by the Oklahoma Osteopathic Association. The white coat symbolizes the medical profession, responsibility and compassion.

OSU's public ceremony for members of the entering class marks their transition into a career of health care delivery. The student doctors will recite the Osteopathic Medicine Oath of Commitment, symbolizing their entrance into the osteopathic medical profession. OSU's first White Coat Ceremony was in 1998.